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I was always looking for a method that would work for me, yet I always settled on something either too complicated and fussy, or too open-ended and random, or just plain meaningless, all of which created this Bermuda Triangle of short-lived attempts at tracking my students as readers. Where I write from today is where I landed after finally sliding my way off the pendulum, somewhere (I hope) near the middle of its swinging arc.

With my last post in a loosely constructed series related to the literacy block, I want to show you how I track readers, and of course the thinking behind it. If you are interested in the other posts, click the links below. The Backstory When it comes to tracking the progress of readers during a reading group or one-to-one reading conference, I've been to both edges of the spectrum. It took me awhile to find the right balance between structure and flexibility.
21 Anchor Charts That Teach Reading Comprehension. This blog is sponsored by Questar Assessment, a K–12 assessment-solutions provider focused on building a bridge between learning and accountability.

Reading comprehension is one of the most complex skills to teach. It’s also arguably the most important. Students will only succeed in other subject areas (and make it a lifelong habit to read for pleasure) if they understand what they are reading on an ingrained level. Many factors go into the development of reading comprehension, including building an extensive vocabulary, asking questions, making connections and visualization. Below, you’ll find 21 anchor charts that tackle some of the trickiest parts of teaching comprehension. 1.

SOURCE: Life in Fifth Grade 2. SOURCE: McDee’s Busy Bees 3. SOURCE: Head Over Heels for Teaching. BusyTeacher.org. Preparing for, understanding and assessing reading can all be a challenge.

Even great reading activities can be simple, however. Here are 9 ideas you can use in your reading program that require nothing more than some sticky notes.
Novel Study Activities Kids Will Love. Challenging Advanced Readers in Upper Elementary School. You’ve got twenty-four kids in your class.

Nineteen are reading on grade level, but five are above. What’s a teacher to do? That’s exactly what Jana wrote to the We Are Teachers HELPLINE! This week. “I have a fourth grader that is well above grade level in all areas.
5 Ways to Teach Students How to Find the Author’s Purpose. If you teach students about author's purpose, you probably already know about the acronym PIE (persuade, inform, entertain) and the related cutesy anchor charts.

While those are good umbrella categories, the actual reasons that authors write nonfiction are often more nuanced. Textbook authors write to educate. Bloggers write because they're passionate about a topic. Journalists write to disseminate information. Today's students are surrounded by information. As students get more advanced in their work with informational text, these five strategies teach them how to figure out why authors really write.
Kiwi ShareZone 1 - The Relieving Teacher (NZ)

27 Seriously Underrated Books Every Book Lover Should Read. The Classroom Bookshelf – A School Library Journal Blog. Phonemic Awareness - Phonological Awareness - A Collection of FREE Downloadable PowerPoint Resources. Close Reading Toolbox Freebie!
This post originally appeared on the blog CreateTeachShare.

Well, my school year has barely ended, and call me crazy, because I am already planning and creating for next year!! I have a list a mile long of new ideas that I can’t wait to try out for next year. My first one?!?! Close Reading Toolboxes!! Close Reading has become a huge reading practice in my classroom, and has helped my students to get through those challenging informational texts. While cleaning out my cupboards recently, I came across these photo cases that I never ended up using for anything. These photo boxes come in a larger plastic box, which holds six individual photo boxes. I created two labels for the outside of the larger plastic box, just to keep it fancy. Then I created a label to put on each of the individual plastic boxes… On the inside cover of each box, I created a reference sheet for the different tools that each box contains.